Why not start your body off each day in a fat-burning state? It’s as easy as drinking a glass of water… and here’s why.

A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that drinking just 17 ounces of water can increase your metabolic rate by up to 30%. Wait, what?! So, this whole drinking water to lose fat thing actually works? In short, yes. But the real gold is in the details.

The researchers in the study found that the total thermogenic response of drinking the water was a burn off of about 24 Calories. Just to be clear, this does not mean that chug-a-lugging gallons of water each day will have you burning massive amounts of calories. There’s an upper limit to this that easily gets bypassed by overdoing it on the aqua. Just like everything else in life, too much of even a good thing can quickly turn into a bad thing (unless it’s watching Game of Thrones… according to my wife, there’s no such thing as too much). Yet, the upper limit is definitely not the issue for the majority of people.

The average person today does not give their body the real hydration it needs. Chronic dehydration goes hand-in-hand with chronic disease, and still it’s disappointedly overlooked in the medical profession. Most people are not giving their body the water-induced thermogenic benefits possible for them because they are missing out on small keys that open big doors of health and wellness.

One, it’s water… not juice, not “vitamin water”, not gatorade, snakeade, or turtleade, not soda, not coffee… just WATER. Two, the actual quality of water matters. It matters in how it relates to your tissues. Specifically, the aquaporin channels that get the water from your belly into your cells. For more on that, make sure to check out the Hydration and Water Masterclass episode right after this one. Third, it’s how and when they drink the water. Follow up studies found that drinking 1 – 2 ounces of water had no significant thermogenic effect. Sippy sippin on the water bottle throughout the day just isn’t going to cut it. You need to get in a nice oil change a couple of times a day. Target 16 – 24 ounces to make the magic happen. And, as you’ll discover today, getting that first drink in to start your day has even more advantage, and might be a game-changing cornerstone of a morning routine that transforms your life.

Today you’ll learn how a consistent morning routine literally changes your brain and helps to set you up for success. You’ll also learn about morning routines of some of the most successful people on the planet, and real, tangible proof that their success (and having an effective morning routine) is not an accident. Just click play, take good notes, and enjoy!

In this episode you’ll discover:

How our daily actions determine our ultimate success.

Why a morning routine provides you with a valuable sense of certainty.

The science of momentum and how it inherently influences our lives.

How a consistent morning routine affects our brains.

The missing piece when people try to create new positive habits for themselves.

Why many of us start our days with high stress.

Why it’s important to get hydrated as soon as your day begins.

The daily ritual that Warren Buffett uses to ensure his continued success.

How to train your mind to be more focused and resilient each day.

How to give your body a metabolic advantage each day.

Why the first food or beverage you have to start your day has a bigger impact on your performance.

The best way to ensure you accomplish your biggest goal for the day.

Additional morning routine components you can mix and match and experiment with.

Morning routines of some of the most successful and healthy people on the planet.

How to adjust your morning routine in a pinch, plus other valuable ways to personalize your best morning routine.

Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Model Health Show. If you haven’t done so already, please take a minute and leave a quick rating and review of the show on Apple Podcast by clicking on the link below. It will help us to keep delivering life-changing information for you every week!

Jade Harrell: I am, because I'm waiting for you to ask me how I'm feeling.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright, how are you feeling?

Jade Harrell: I've got my movementum going, Shawn!

Shawn Stevenson: Movementum.

Jade Harrell: Yes.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright, alright.

Jade Harrell: I'm in motion, I've got momentum, and I am moving.

Shawn Stevenson: I like that.

Jade Harrell: In a positive direction.

Shawn Stevenson: See here's what's so crazy. You didn't even know about the show topic today.

Jade Harrell: Yeah, they don't know you surprise me like that.

Shawn Stevenson: And momentum is a part of this episode. So yeah, we're here.

Jade Harrell: Right, right.

Shawn Stevenson: We're here.

Jade Harrell: We're in like an astral room, we're like twins.

Shawn Stevenson: What?

Jade Harrell: We're siblings!

Shawn Stevenson: Like the Beyoncé / Jay Z twins maybe?

Jade Harrell: Yeah! That's us!

Shawn Stevenson: Okay, alright I get it. I get that. Well let's give birth then.

Jade Harrell: The universe, yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Let's come on out. Everybody, thank you so much for tuning-

Jade Harrell: Me first.

Shawn Stevenson: Hey I want to be older.

Jade Harrell: You want to be first? Okay, good.

Shawn Stevenson: Thank you so much for tuning into the show today. We've got an incredible, important episode lined up for you guys. We're going to be talking about morning routines that supercharge your fat loss, your health, and your success.

And why does this matter so much? Well the way you start your day is what creates that momentum, and so many successful people as you'll hear today throughout time, as well as some of the most successful people today have these very consistent morning routines.

These things that they've implanted to make sure they're setting themselves up for success each day. That's really the key, because we want to put success on automatic.

We want to put the results that we're working for with our fitness, with our health, with our success whether it's relationship success, financial success, your career success; we need to have strategies and pieces in place.

And we're going to dissect what that actually looks like, we're going to go through a sample- a really great template.

Jade Harrell: Oh good.

Shawn Stevenson: Of what that can look like, and also we're going to deliver some science on why this actually matters, because it does.

Jade Harrell: Of course it does.

Shawn Stevenson: Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert. Before we do that, I want to give a shout-out to something that I've been really paying a lot of attention to lately, and that is creating an injury-proof body. Alright?

Now what do I mean by that? Well we can all get in mechanical complacency. And so what does that mean?

Well we start working out but we're doing the same old movements, we're doing the same patterns. We might change things up a bit, and that's great because we can change it and create an entirely different workout simply changing the speed, changing the amount of rest time.

There's a lot of different factors that can go into that. The concentric and eccentric movement, how much time we're taking on each piece.

But because of the way that conventional lifting is set up, especially with strength training, we get caught doing the same movements.

Shawn Stevenson: Even if you're doing push-ups, you're training your body to be strong in that one direction, and it's really difficult to go outside of that when you're doing these conventional movements because it generally requires a barbell or something like that.

And what I've been implementing, and I highly encourage everybody to do this, you've got to start doing some unconventional training.

This is going to help you to be strong in multiple directions. And I use the tools, the training equipment from Onnit. The steel clubs, the steel maces, the kettlebells, primal bells. I have primal bells.

Jade Harrell: Okay.

Shawn Stevenson: Did I tell you they have an Iron Man kettlebell.

Jade Harrell: Oh my goodness.

Shawn Stevenson: It is le sexy.

Jade Harrell: I bet it is.

Shawn Stevenson: It's so cute.

Jade Harrell: Please take a picture and post it.

Shawn Stevenson: It's fantastic. Here's why I do these things. I got caught- because of that 80/20 rule, right? You do 20% of the things that get 80% of the results. Especially when you're locked for time.

And the same thing goes for me that happens with a lot of people. You've got kids, you've got a work schedule, you've got a show to do, you've got travel, you've got speaking all over the world. Where do you find the time?

Well you do the things that really get the most bang for the buck, and I got caught in that pattern, and I ended up spraining my wrist because I'm doing those same patterns.

Because you know I grab a couple 110 dumbbells and start pressing.

Jade Harrell: I've seen you. I've heard.

Shawn Stevenson: You know, just a little strength. A little strength I have.

Jade Harrell: You strong.

Shawn Stevenson: And so doing those types of movements, but I got in the way because I started to just- I got kind of 'busy,' not doing the simple things that I could add on as a supplement at least.

I can spend a day working with those tools or adding them on at the end of my workout. Either way you can get some great results.

And so by injury-proofing my body- and I was telling myself for a couple of weeks then, I was like, 'I really need to work on my wrist, and my rotation of my wrists and shoulders.' And sure enough.

Because you know. Like your intuition knows, but what do we do? We so often don't pay attention to that.

Jade Harrell: Oh I ignore, I ignore.

Shawn Stevenson: Until it just smacks you.

Jade Harrell: Yeah my body's got to like put me in a chokehold and is like, 'Look are you going to listen to me, or am I going to have to make this difficult?'

Shawn Stevenson: Now here's what's so cool, is that we just got access, 10% all of the training equipment from Onnit for /The Model Health Show.

Jade Harrell: Kettlebells, too?

Shawn Stevenson: Yes. The primal bells, the Marvel kettlebells, and also they have plates, like weight plates, Captain America shield.

Jade Harrell: Oh really?

Shawn Stevenson: Super cool stuff, yeah. Do you know how hard it is to partner with Marvel? Like the litigation you've got to go through?

Jade Harrell: Exactly.

Shawn Stevenson: They did that. These things, not only they're great for your body, I mean beyond great for your body, but they also make it fun. Like they add this little interesting fun component. It's like, 'I want to play with this. I want to have some fun with this particular exercise equipment.'

So head over there, check them out. www.Onnit.com/model. 10% off all of their health and human performance supplements, and 10% off all the training equipment as well. Head over, check them out. Now let's get to the iTunes review of the week.

Jade Harrell: This one is from TakingBackControl with five stars. 'Just saying thank you. Shawn and Jade, I cannot say enough how grateful I am for your show. Both of you and all of your guests, their gusto for knowledge and passion for better health wellness have found me at the perfect moment in my life.

I'm a nursing student and I've been listening to your show in my two hours spent in my car each day. The information I've gathered from all of you has led me to a happier, healthier life.

I no longer suffer from symptoms of PTSD, TBI, depression, anxiety, or high blood sugar. I have struggled with this for years and since returning from my last deployment in Iraq, I share your show with every veteran I can so they can also have the tools to take back control of their lives.

I can now enter the nursing field in the best mental and physical shape of my life, and hopefully share this with my future patients.

You have truly given me the tools to transform my life; something I never thought was possible.'
Shawn Stevenson: That's powerful. That's powerful.

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Healer, heal thyself. And wow, now to carry that on and to share that, and to be of service to other people, and your story is just amazing. I just commend you, and am so grateful for you, and I'm happy that you found us, and wow. That's just very, very heartwarming, and thank you so much for sharing your story.

Everybody, thank you so much for leaving these reviews over in iTunes. We truly, truly do appreciate that. And that was probably the first time I heard 'gusto' in a review as well, so thank you for that little piece too.

Jade Harrell: I like that gusto.

Shawn Stevenson: So guys, if you haven’t left a review for iTunes, please hop over there and leave us a review. I truly, truly do appreciate that. And on that note, let's get to our topic of the day.

Shawn Stevenson: And why this matters so much. We have to begin this with a truth jacket.

Jade Harrell: Oh boy.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright checking in on truth, and being honest with ourselves about where we are right now in our lives.

How did we produce the results that we have currently? Because the truth is, we produced these results in our lives.

We tend to come into the situation, especially as we're working to become better, we have a lot of victim mentality. 'These things happened to me.' 'They said this about me.' 'I was born into these circumstances.'

These things are all true, but you still have the power to decide. You still have the power to make good in whatever circumstances that you find yourself in. And there are countless stories of this.
If you look at the story of Oprah.

Shawn Stevenson: Right, I mean she's literally a billionaire with a B, and she came from I mean just straight up poverty. Man, I mean the stories of abuse, and sexual abuse, it's just to hear that story and to see the impact that she's having.

Whether or not you like her, no disrespect to anybody-

Jade Harrell: I'm all good.

Shawn Stevenson: - who's an O hater. But the bottom line is we all-

Jade Harrell: Yeah I plan on sitting on her porch.

Shawn Stevenson: We all come into this life in different circumstances, and what have you been doing to produce the results that you have right now? Because your choices determine the life that you currently have.

The person you decide to spend your life with. That puts you on a whole different- just what if it was somebody else? I know some people can't even imagine that.

Jade Harrell: Right.

Shawn Stevenson: What if you messed with that person? You know that one person that you dodged a bullet.

Jade Harrell: I'm so glad.

Shawn Stevenson: Or maybe it was like a happier circumstance like I think Madonna was like Sean Penn was the love of her life. It was fifty people ago, but- and no disrespect to the Madonnanators out there.

Jade Harrell: I'll sit on her porch too.

Shawn Stevenson: But it's just understanding our decisions, where we choose to live, which school we choose to go to, all of these things-

Jade Harrell: Who we do a podcast with.
Shawn Stevenson: Yes. All of these things- she's reaching out. All of these things unfold our story. Now with that said, these are these big decisions that are in those small moments.

Jade Harrell: Right.

Shawn Stevenson: But in truth it's the small decisions that you make daily that determine the ultimate success that you experience. So that's why this is so important. How you start your day matters because every single day is an opportunity. Every single day is a clean slate for you to create the life that you are truly here to live.

And so why is this important? Number one, a consistent morning routine provides a sense of normalcy that roots you. You get rooted in that sense of normalcy.

Because certainty is a human need. We've talked about the human needs via Tony Robbins before on the show, and we all have this need for certainty.

And so because of the many happenings of the day outside of that are uncertain. For example you have a meeting, but you don't know how that meeting is going to go exactly. Or you have to commute for thirty minutes, but you don't know how traffic is going to be.

There are so many uncertain factors outside of your control. Your morning routine is something that you can control. It creates that normalcy to start your day.

And also another big key here is that an intelligent morning routine effectively eliminates wasted days. Every single day you can start off with a win within that first thirty minutes of your day, the first hour so you're not trying to pine away and try to feel like you got better.

You can get that out of the way as soon as your day starts.

Another key here is it generates momentum. Having a consistent morning routine generates momentum. And there's actually a whole science, there's a psychological momentum if people want to look into that. So the psychological science of momentum.

And so this is important to understand as well, take this away. Momentum works both ways. There's a negative momentum that gets created.

Jade Harrell: Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: There's also positive momentum. Alright and so here's a study. This was a 2014 study of rowers, this was looking at athletes. Because also when we hear momentum we tend to think about sports a lot.

Jade Harrell: Immediately.

Shawn Stevenson: So I looked for some examples for that. So this 2014 study of rowers found that overall effort exerted decreased more during times of negative momentum, and increased during times of positive momentum.

Alright a simple thing, and this is we're talking about the momentum of them winning, right? Having those consistent wins.

And so as they have that momentum going, their exertion picked up when they were used to winning, and it went down when they were used to losing.

Jade Harrell: Absolutely.

Shawn Stevenson: And also they found that interpersonal coordination also got worse under negative momentum. And as it turns out, people react to short-term momentum changes also depends on their long-term momentum. So what does that mean?

There was another study of rowers that showed that athletes who have a long-term momentum against them are more sensitive to negative changes in the short-term.

So if you have that black cloud hovering over you, and something negative happens, it's even harder, right? But if you have that positive momentum going, you can kind of brush yourself off and get back in the game much faster.

Jade Harrell: You take it as a confirmation. And you can because you're expecting that. You've got that current, you're flowing down that current, that downhill stream and you're like, "See? This is how it was going." Right?

But if you're in a stream of positivity, which is where I try to exist. I tell folks I'm pretty much there about 85% of the time.

Shawn Stevenson: Row, row, row your boat. Let's go.

Jade Harrell: Gently down the stream.

Shawn Stevenson: Merrily, merrily.

Jade Harrell: Hey, life is but a dream.

Shawn Stevenson: Life is but a dream. That just happened. That just happened.

Jade Harrell: See, we might have some courses to connect to.

Shawn Stevenson: And so as we move away from the little kid songs, now I want to share a study with you guys, and this is actually looking at morning routines specifically.

Jade Harrell: Okay.

Shawn Stevenson: Now this was in 2016, and this was following 450 men, and found that making subtle changes to the morning habits for these men, the body clock can be manipulated to make mornings not only more tolerable, but actually improved their overall daily outlook.

The researchers said that 'if optimized, a person's morning routine can boost energy, increase focus, and build self-esteem.'

Jade Harrell: I can see that.

Shawn Stevenson: So I had to make this show because we did an entire episode, a Master Class on evening routines, and how powerful those are at improving your sleep, at increasing your metabolism, right?

Your sleep- your evening routine actually influences your metabolism. Crazy stuff, but we'll of course link up and there's going to be a lot of 'go back to episodes' today, a lot of resources for you, so make sure to get the show notes at www.TheModelHealthShow.com.

But that show was powerful. We receive so many incredible messages about that episode. But what about the other side of this?

And during that episode- and there's going to be some consistencies here. We talked about what routines do for our brains.

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: And actually making something physical out of this. Not some airy fairy like, 'You should have a morning routine so you can be successful. Yay!'

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Not like that, alright? This is actually like what's happening physically. And so this starts with a conversation of myelin. And so myelin coats the axons that transmit electrical impulses throughout your brain.

'What does that mean, Shawn? What does that mean?' Well basically when you do a behavior, that behavior starts to create this connection in your brain, alright?

So there's this electrical- but it's physical. Physical electrical connection that starts to fire and create that pattern. The more you repeat that behavior, the stronger that pattern becomes, the stronger that behavior becomes.

And it gets more myelinated, there's more myelin that gets laid down to insulate that nerve pathway from firing.

So this is like- a good example is Steph Curry shooting a basketball, right? And no disrespect to the Cavs. Shout-out to everybody in Ohio.

Jade Harrell: Yes, some of us are still tender.

Shawn Stevenson: But that ability to shoot the three-pointer as many times as he's done it, he doesn't have to think about it anymore. It's laid down- that myelin is so dense and created this nerve firing from all these different directions, and we are doing this to ourselves whether we know it or not.

We are doing this also- because it's not practice makes perfect.

Jade Harrell: Right.

Shawn Stevenson: It's perfect practice makes perfect.

Jade Harrell: Sure.

Shawn Stevenson: Better yet, it's practice makes permanent.

Jade Harrell: Oh man.

Shawn Stevenson: So whether you're doing what is advantageous to you or not, your brain is locking that behavior in. This is why it can be so difficult to break what we call 'bad habits.'

Jade Harrell: Absolutely. Absolutely, so it will take some persistence. Because I've had to fight that on both ends.

On the evening routine, getting home and I'm pooped, then I'm wanting to sit down and not go into my routine, but that created a habit that was already there.

It became something that automatically after a long day, you get home, you don't want to do anything else. I had to start making a change, and a new association before I even get to the house late, or anytime after 6:00.

To say, 'Tonight I want my routine, I will have my Epsom salt bath, I will have a conversation with my husband, and I will turn my phone off at 9:00.' And I had to say it before I even entered the door to start beginning to lay down a new message.

And the same thing in the morning. This morning I woke up thinking, 'Oh no I forgot something,' some work thing, and I started to reach for the phone.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah.

Jade Harrell: And I said, 'No.' I told myself- I had to say it out loud. Chris thought I was talking to him. And I said, 'No, no I'm just trying to break the cycle.'

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah.

Jade Harrell: And I said, 'I'm going to do the first things first, and then I'll get to it. It'll be there.'

Shawn Stevenson: I want to come back to that point, exactly of going for our phone first thing in the morning.

Jade Harrell: Okay good.

Shawn Stevenson: And tying that in here, and finding a way that- again that we can- everything is an option. I'm not saying that that is a behavior that can't be something positive, but we'll dissect that in a little bit.

So every habit begins with a psychological pattern called a habit loop. Right? A habit loop.

Jade Harrell: Makes sense there.

Shawn Stevenson: And it's a three part process. First there's a cue or a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and let a behavior unfold.

And the example that I gave on the evening routine is Michael Hyatt, when he was on the show, he talked about activation triggers.

So this is something that happens that triggers a behavior instantly. So for him, he set it up in his office that as soon as it's I believe it's 5:00, the lights go out automatically in his office telling him he needs to get out of there and go and spend time with his family.

Jade Harrell: I like that.

Shawn Stevenson: Because he knows he can have a tendency towards being a workaholic, and his family is very important to him, so he created this activation trigger.

Then there's the routine, that's the second part, and this is where the behavior itself is taking place. That's what we tend to think about when we think about habits. And this is from Charles Duhigg who wrote 'The Power of Habit.'

Now we first have to have the trigger which is for you, you talked about 'When I get home. Because before I get home, then bam-bam-bam, these certain things happen.

It's an automatic thing until we realize it, and either change the trigger, or change the behavior, right?

So that's first, we've got the trigger. Second we have the routine which is the actual thing that we do.

And the third, and this is very important, and this is what he talks about, Charles Duhigg, is the reward. Something that your brain likes that helps it to remember the habit loop in the future.

Alright your brain has to be anchored in. This is where we mess up when we're trying to create positive habits, is we're not getting the reward. We have to get the reward and to be conscious of that. Right?

So we can consciously come into this, and getting our brain these habit loops, creating the habit loops consciously and not missing out on the reward portion.

Jade Harrell: That keeps it from being an entanglement. So if you're fighting to do the thing without the reward, then you're going- it's going to look more like-

Shawn Stevenson: It's wrong, like it's totally against human nature. It's like why am I doing this for real? You know? Even with negative habits, that feeling of smoking the cigarette, right? You get that reward, right?

And then we try to start exercising and we just feel sore, right?

Jade Harrell: Horrible.

Shawn Stevenson: This is like- your brain is like, 'What is wrong with you? Don't put ourselves in harm's way.' Right? So we have to find the reward portion of that.

And so now that we've got a little bit of the science behind the scenes, I want to talk about my personal morning routine from back in the day, alright?

Back in the day when I wasn't doing too well, back in the day when I was struggling with my health, when I was struggling just getting to class because of this chronic socalled incurable spinal condition.

And so I had trouble just literally getting to campus, and so continuously dropping classes and that kind of thing.

And for me, my morning routine was like- the premise was I had no real direction in my life, and my daily mission was to just see how long I can stay in bed, and still make it and be there on time. That was the mission.

Now when I say that, some people- you can identify with that right now.

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Right? The daily mission was to see how long can I stay in bed until the time I have to be to where I need to be?

And so for me, I was like, 'Okay it's a fifteen minute drive to get there by 7:00 AM. Plus five minutes to get dressed and brush my teeth, alright? So okay then I'll get up at 6:40.' Alright 6:40, and that was my daily life.

Jade Harrell: Ready, set, go.

Shawn Stevenson: Right? A very sad way of being, and this is because not only am I putting my stress level at ten when I actually get up in the morning, but I'm playing small.

This is the real issue here; I'm playing small and I'm not doing anything to put myself at an advantage. And I'm obviously not going to be showing up as my best whatever I'm showing up to at 7:00. Right?

And so stressing to show up on time, this is a big part of this morning routine portion, and being able to personalize it for you, which we'll come back to.

But what does struggling to be on time cost you?

Jade Harrell: Oh man.

Shawn Stevenson: It's stressful.

Jade Harrell: Yes.

Shawn Stevenson: It's very stressful, and it's stressful to be average. That's the thing, that's what the stress does to us. That's what it's costing us, it's costing us an average life.

I love this quote from Chris Rock's father, and he told him one day, Chris was working to get to some audition or something like that. And Chris was like, "I've got to get going because I need to be on time." Right?

And he was actually met with this important takeaway that stuck with me. He said that if you're not early, then you're late. Well you shouldn't be trying to be on time. If you're not early, then you're late.

Because again, it puts you at that psychological disadvantage. You're not there, you're not settled, you're behind the ball.

Jade Harrell: Absolutely.

Shawn Stevenson: And so for me, again my morning routine consisted of how long can I stay in bed to make it to this place on time still, instead of having these success rituals that you're going to learn about today to truly create momentum, to create that sense of normalcy, to get some early wins that all snowball into something really powerful.

Jade Harrell: Which makes me think of what you mentioned earlier about the psychology moment that exists. Because then if I'm thinking, 'Well how can I make this an epic arrival?'

Something I'm trying to impart in the children, I say, 'Late is not a herald trait.' I make that an affirmation for them.

Shawn Stevenson: I like that.

Jade Harrell: And that early is on time, on time is late, and late is bad business, and that's not how we get down.

Shawn Stevenson: I like that, I'm going to snap for that. I like that.

Jade Harrell: But there's a psychology to that, it's a mindset going in. And you mentioned purpose, that just really hit home for me. What is my purpose in it?

Because if I'm going to be stressed to be average or below average, then what's the point?

Shawn Stevenson: Exactly, yes.

Jade Harrell: If I'm avoiding an exertion of energy to become something, then what's the energy exertion for?

Shawn Stevenson: Man, so please take that away and hear this. It's stressful being average.

Everybody listening, you are listening to this show because you are not that. You are an exceptional human being. You are somebody who has potential beyond anything that you can even see, and it starts with you creating these strategies, creating these rituals for yourself to put yourself in position to be your best, right?

Stay ready so you don't have to get ready.

Jade Harrell: That's right.

Shawn Stevenson: Right? So now we're going to go ahead and dive in, and I'm going to take you through this template that I use this as gleaning a lot for my life personally.

But I'm also going to share with you some morning routines of some very successful people who decided to chime in and add to this episode as well.

So for me, this is the framework, it's called the Six F's. Alright? The Six F's. So we're going to go through each one.

Jade Harrell: The Six F Framework.

Shawn Stevenson: There you go.

Jade Harrell: I love it.

Shawn Stevenson: I'm going to snap again for you. Alright so we start with the Six F's. So the first F that we want to get in in the morning is to fuel your circulation. Fuel your circulation.

This is the very first thing that I do when I wake up in the morning, is I get myself hydrated by drinking high quality structured water first thing. And I'm drinking about 25 to 30 ounces of water, maybe even upwards of a liter of water.

And why do I do this? Well just a few things that water is responsible for. People have heard this many times, the majority of your body is water. We're talking about 70% to 80% of your water- like when I'm looking at you, is made of water.

Water is what really animates your tissues, alright? Your brain is fat and water. Alright? It's kind of important.

But water really functions as this extracellular fluid as well as your blood, your synovial fluid, and the list goes on and on. These very, very important liquid compounds in your body need water, and when you become deficient in those things, guess what those fluids do? They literally start to get thick. Right? They start to become murky.

Jade Harrell: Sludgy.

Shawn Stevenson: Yes, good word. Good word.

Jade Harrell: Yeah can you help me with synovial?

Shawn Stevenson: Makes you think of a toxic Avenger.

Jade Harrell: Yeah, right! Can you help me with synovial?

Shawn Stevenson: Well it's your joints. And another thing that this is really like a hallmark thing for is your DNA function. Just a small percentage drop in your body's optimal hydration level can literally damage your DNA.

Your DNA is essentially printing out copies of you, so it can start to mess that process up simply being dehydrated. Also your body, your neurotransmitters, they move throughout your body on a water super highway.

You know, your hormones as well. That's how things travel and communicate throughout your body, so that communication starts to get messed up.

So these are just a couple of things. And we did a water and hydration Master Class, it was episode 73, one of the most popular episodes to date. So we'll put that in the show notes for you if you happen to be one of the five people that didn't check out that episode yet.

So water is crucial. And why is it so important in the morning? Well this is one of the most dehydrated times that you experience outside of like getting out and doing a lot of exercise, being out in the sun and sweating, that kind of thing.

When you go to sleep at night, we're talking about for the average person somewhere between six and nine hours of not consuming liquids, right? You're not consuming water, but that's not the only thing. You're not just laying there.

Your brain and your body are doing literally millions, millions, and millions of different processes to bring you back better while you're sleeping. And there's a lot of metabolic waste that results.

Even your brain, the majority of your brain is detoxifying itself when you're sleeping. Ten times more activity of your glympathic system, this is your kind of cellular, extracellular waste management system for your brain. Ten times more active when you're sleeping than when you're awake.

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright? And if you're not getting up and rehydrating your tissues, that stuff is just hanging around in your body.

Jade Harrell: For sure.

Shawn Stevenson: This is literally like an oil change to start your day. Getting out the old stuff, bringing in the new.

Jade Harrell: Yeah that takes it back to sludgy because if this is how communication and movement happens, and if that's still going on at night and we're not doing anything to support it, then there is going to be some backlog.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And also I want to pinpoint something that again, starting your day like this puts you at a huge advantage because you're just simply able to get in some of your hydration needs for the day.

You know I give the general template which is half of your body weight in ounces of water each day. That's the goal. So if it's a 200-pound person, they want to drink 100 ounces of water as your baseline.

150-pound person, 75 ounces as your baseline. And then we adjust from there with your activity level and such, but that just gives people a barometer of where you want to be.

But here's another important- and again, that's putting you at an advantage for your day, getting that hydration in first thing in the morning. Because even you carry it around in your fancy bottle like Jade and I have, sometimes we forget those bottles.

They just sit there and they're part of the ambiance. They're part of the Feng Shui, but we're not drinking enough water, right?

So you can get it in in the first part of the morning and it creates that routine, that habit. Now you don't want to guzzle just any water, let me make that clear too.

And we dissect that in episode 73, so make sure to check that out. Because a lot of people- even today, I mean maybe at least every day somebody messages me on social media, whatever the case might be, 'Hey Shawn, there's a guy at the gym trying to sell me this alkaline water machine. What do you think about those?'

Jade Harrell: Alkaline water.

Shawn Stevenson: I'll tell you one thing, don't ever play yourself. Don't ever play yourself. Listen to that episode and I'll break down exactly what those machines are all about.

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: And whether or not it's ideal for you.

Jade Harrell: And this is in alignment with that 'early' too. The early is on time. So you're getting your water early right in time for you to use it.

Shawn Stevenson: Yes, being proactive.

Jade Harrell: Well that's a nice way of saying it too.

Shawn Stevenson: So that's number one of our Six F's, and that is to fuel your circulation.

So we're going to move onto number two. Number two is to feed your mind. Feed your mind.

Now there's few things that are as important as this, but it's so often overlooked in our society. We begin immediately to feed our minds with things that disempower us, and that puts on a certain track to start the day, because it's creating that momentum.

People are getting up and then checking the news, they're jumping in and checking their email. You know there's going to be some kind of stuff you don't want to hear, but why do we check email anyways? Because we're looking for that good news, but it's surrounded by like ten other things that you've got to take care of, right?

And so here's the thing. We want to proactively feed our minds to start the day. Not just our body, not just our tissues, but feed directly your mind.

And how do we do that? Some of the things that I love to employ, and that you're going to see consistent with some of these very, very successful people, is reading. Right? Reading books to start the day.

And so for me, I'm at least going to get ten to twenty minutes of reading in each day. This might be a full chapter, this might be a nice amount of pages to get through in a book, but I'm going to be reading to activate that part of my brain.

And it also creates this very strong neuroassociation that that's what I do in the morning. And a great example of this is Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett. Literally one of the richest humans walking around ever. And when asked how to get smarter,
Buffett once held up a stack of paper and said, "Read 500 pages like this every day."

That's how knowledge builds up, like compound interest. And knows a thing about compound interest, so this is literally saying that knowledge compounds.

When you're reading, that compounds so not only are you smarter, but you're genius level. You are Jimmy Neutron level smartness.

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright? Now he says that he sits in his office and reads probably about 80% of the day, 20% is execution, and this is how he gains more knowledge and becomes better at what he does.

And the immediate argument is going to be, 'Well I don't have time to read all day like that, Shawn.'

Jade Harrell: It actually-

Shawn Stevenson: He's rich. He's rich. Now this is the thing, listen. He's telling you how he got rich. He's telling you how he got rich, and if you can't read an hour a day, can you read thirty minute? Can you read twenty minutes?

Jade Harrell: Can you read three?

Shawn Stevenson: Can you do just ten minutes, right? He's literally sharing something that helped him to get to the place that he's at. It's so simple but are we doing it? Right?

And so we can employ and take to heart this strategy, and add in some reading during the first part of the day. And for some people it's just not their cup of tea, which is all good, but I love the statement that leaders are readers, right?

And so this is in our consciousness because it's a thing, right? When you talk to some of these very successful people whether they're an entrepreneur, whether they're heads of corporations; a big portion of their education, the continuing education by the way, is through books.

So you've got that, or we can shift gears, it's a great time if you're not a reader per say, of audiobooks, podcasts. You can throw on a podcast in the morning while you're getting ready, while you're drinking your morning water, while you're doing your stretching, doing a little mobility work, whatever it might be you can tie that in.

But we've got podcasts, you can tune in to feed your mind to start the day. There's inspirational videos like Eric Thomas, our guy Eric Thomas who's been on the show a couple of times. The number one motivational speaker in the world.

And if you click play on one of his videos, and you're not like, 'What? What?!'

Jade Harrell: I will have to wake up the whole house.

Shawn Stevenson: Let's go!

Jade Harrell: Right.

Shawn Stevenson: You know, whatever it is, if he doesn't get you fired up to really act on your potential, there's something wrong. There's something wrong with your medulla oblongata.

Jade Harrell: Somebody bring the CPR.

Shawn Stevenson: So here's the thing, and by the way we'll put his episode as well in the show notes.

Jade Harrell: Absolutely. Both of them.

Shawn Stevenson: But this is a great way to start your day because you get that positive momentum, you get that positive kick to start pushing in that direction.

So feed your mind every day, even if it's five minutes. Right? Even if you make this whole process that I'm sharing today into a ten minute process. Maybe this is two minutes.

Like you listen to two minutes of an Eric Thomas video, or a podcast, or you tune into The Model Health Show for five minutes. Whatever the case might be, add that piece in every single morning, and I'm telling you you're going to see huge dividends in the long run. So that's number two.

Jade Harrell: Our buddy Hal Elrod said we can knock it out in six with our life savers.

Shawn Stevenson: There you go.

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah Hal Elrod who wrote 'The Miracle Morning.'

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: And so- and of course he was on the show as well, so we'll put that in the show notes.

Alright so that's number two on our list of the Six F's. So number one we've got fuel your circulation. Number two, feed your mind. Feed your mind every day. Make this a part of your morning routine.

Number three is to focus your power. Focus your power.

So often we wake up and we're at the mercy of things that are going on in the world. Again, Jade gave the example in the evening of the phone, being able to put that down.

Or for most of us it's grabbing that phone first thing in the morning with the stress as well that she mentioned. And we are immediately putting ourselves at the mercy of other people's agenda.

It just is what it is whether it's a text from your sister and wanting you to maybe pick up the kids, or it's an email you're checking and you've got to send in some files, or whatever it might be.

What is your goal for the day? Whatever your big goal was, now it's playing second, or third, or fourth, and the day is going to get away from you, and you're not executing on your number one thing because you're taking care of what other people's needs are.

And the thing is, it's not that that's wrong, because you could do both, but it makes it so much more difficult to do yours when you put all those other things in front of you.

How do you actually serve at a higher level? You get your big thing done so you can show up the best version of you to take care of everybody else. That's really key.

Jade Harrell: Take the reins of it as opposed to getting tossed about on a mechanical bull called your day of somebody else's.

Shawn Stevenson: A mechanical bull.

Jade Harrell: Yeah. I'm from Denver, man.

Shawn Stevenson: Why did the Ginuwine Pony song just come into my head?

Jade Harrell: Because you are unique. Yeah we're not going to sing that.

Shawn Stevenson: So when I say focus your power, it's not just avoiding things that can start to pull you down, but employing things that could elevate you.

And so for me it's brain training. This is a time for meditation, this is a time for really 'getting my mind right,' and being able to focus on my own objective, and to be able to find a sense of peace, and connectivity, and focus to start the day to execute.

Because another reason we're not executing and getting things done is we feel scattered. And meditation is one of these proven tools that we all have access to, that we can have in our superhero utility belt to employ.

But again, it's the practice. It's called a meditation practice, it's not something you do every now and then and expect like, 'Come on, inner peace. Come on, I'm waiting for you.' It's not going to work that way.

Jade Harrell: 'Hurry up!'

Shawn Stevenson: 'Hurry up! I've got five minutes for inner peace.' It's understanding that you create that, you create this space, and I've experienced this firsthand starting off. I've been meditating for at least ten years, at least a decade, and everything I do has a purpose.

I'm not doing this just because, right? I'm doing this because of the results that I've seen. It literally transformed my life. If people were to ask me like what's the number one thing that helped me to go from where I was to where I am, I'd say meditation for sure.

Jade Harrell: Sure, sure.

Shawn Stevenson: Because it created that space to where I can become clear, I can become focused, and envision. There's a big part of visualization that can be employed in this space as well, and I want to share with you guys a couple of studies here as well, and these are directly from my book, 'Sleep Smarter.'

There was a study that was published in the journal Brain Research Bulletin, and researchers discovered that people trained to meditate over an eight week period were better able to control specific types of brainwaves called alpha rhythms, right?

This is getting you in an alpha state. This is getting your brain into flow, alright? And that's just one.

So let me shift gears really quickly, because there's a ton of studies in here. But one for health, this is from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, found that meditation lowered blood pressure, it reduced the risk of heart disease and stroke.

And numerous studies also demonstrate that meditation can reduce chronic pain, and associated inflammatory biomarkers. You can literally- it's clinically proven, you can reduce inflammation in your body by meditating. Fantastic.

And also of course, I talked about the relationship to sleep in the book, and this was the American Academy of Sleep Medicine published a study finding that meditation, it's clinically proven to be an effective treatment for insomnia. Equal to that of some of the popular insomnia medications. This is free! This is free!

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: No side effects.

Jade Harrell: You have the power.

Shawn Stevenson: Now here, here's the thing. The study showed that over a two month period, and this is again consistent meditation daily. Meditating in the morning helped them sleep better at night because they had the tool available to basically minimize all those windows of your mind that are open when you're trying to go to bed.

Jade Harrell: Pull the shades.

Shawn Stevenson: We want to- it's not that we don't want to be able to have a lot of things going on in our mind, that helps us be successful. If somebody needs an answer on something, if you don't have ten windows open, you might not be able to pull that data out, right?

Jade Harrell: Sure.

Shawn Stevenson: But when we want to go to sleep, we want to be able to minimize those and just keep the sleep window open, alright? It's not about not having thoughts, you're going to have thoughts, you have a brain.

Jade Harrell: 'If I only had a brain.'

Shawn Stevenson: Is that The Wiz version or is that the classic Wizard of Oz?

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, he did. He did that. So here's what they discovered. The study showed that-

Jade Harrell: We just went down memory lane.

Shawn Stevenson: The study showed that a two month period, and this is all of the things that were improved. Sleep latency, this means they fell asleep faster.

Total sleep time, so they actually slept longer via meditation. Wake after sleep onset was reduced, so this means they woke up less frequently.

Sleep efficiency, so this is what really 'Sleep Smarter' is all about. How to get better sleep. Not sleep more, but how can you sleep better?

And so this is actually efficiently moving in and out of the right stages of sleep.

Their sleep quality improved, overall sleep quality, and also a decrease in their symptoms of depression in all of the patients who used meditation.

Alright this is not some airy fairy thing. This is something that is real, and this is something that has solid science backing its efficacy, and if we can employ this, if we make this a part of our morning ritual, this puts us in a place to really be able to focus our power.

Jade Harrell: Absolutely. You talk about- you said I don't do these things just because, I do them for a reason. What I gather from that is that you're the cause of the things that are to be, as opposed to there are other things that prevent or dictate.

So just even changing that to, 'I'm not doing it because. I am the cause in the matter of the things that will be.'

Shawn Stevenson: Yes.

Jade Harrell: 'I will have a greater day, I will have greater sleep, and I'm the cause in that. I will perform greater.'

Shawn Stevenson: I love that. I am the cause.

Jade Harrell: I got it from you.

Shawn Stevenson: I love it, I love it.

Jade Harrell: You are the cause of the things to be.

Shawn Stevenson: Now let's go ahead and move on to number four here on our list of the Six F's. These are the things we want to employ in our morning routine- or six things that you can pull from.

Alright so we've covered fuel your circulation. Number two is feed your mind. Number three is focus your power. Number four is fire up your metabolism.

We can start our day in a metabolic advantage by adding in some smart exercise.

So why is that? Well exercise- and we've all experienced this, right? We get this 'runner's high.' We get the endorphins flowing, we start to feel good when we exercise and move our bodies.

And for many people, this is one of the only times because they've got some things going on with their hormones, which we've done multiple shows on this. We just did one with Dr. Alan Christansen talking about adrenal fatigue.

Jade Harrell: Loved him.

Shawn Stevenson: Got to listen to that episode.

Jade Harrell: Yes.

Shawn Stevenson: But during exercise, because it kick starts that system in making you feel good. We've got the endorphins and enkephalins flowing.

So that's one component of it, but also movement generates a certain form of electricity called piezoelectricity. You literally are charging up your cells when you move. How powerful is that?

And I often refer people to this statement that humans don't get energy.

Jade Harrell: Yes.

Shawn Stevenson: Because people come into my clinic and they're like, "Shawn what can I take? What can I take to have more energy?"

But we don't get energy, we create energy. You are an energy creating entity, right?
It's sort of like- this is why in The Matrix they were using people as batteries. Because you do have this energy currency, this electromagnetic power.

Like you can literally- if there was a way to harness the power you have in your body, you can light up a city.

Jade Harrell: And you know what's deep about that, is that they weren't just plugged in. They had a mental reality of movement, action, life, ordinary carrying on. So it wasn't like it was just a stagnant state.

Shawn Stevenson: You're getting deep.

Jade Harrell: There was activity, yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Deep as an ocean right now.

Jade Harrell: See, that's me.

Shawn Stevenson: 'Whoa.'

Jade Harrell: 'Whoa.'

Shawn Stevenson: 'I know kung fu.'

Jade Harrell: 'I know sushi.'

Shawn Stevenson: We've got the piezoelectricity, the endorphins, the enkephalins, and also this is just a great way to start your day because how you start your morning is going to show up for you when you lay your head down on your mattress at night as per the study that's cited in 'Sleep Smarter' as well with Appalachian State University.

And they had exercisers to train at three different times exclusively throughout this study period. So stage one they had them exercise exclusively at 7:00 AM in the morning, and tracked all their results.

Phase two of the study, they had them train exclusively at 1:00 PM in the afternoon. Phase three, they had them train exclusively at 7:00 PM at night.

And what they found was that the morning exercisers spent more time in the deepest, most anabolic stages of sleep than the other two times of when they were exercising.

They also tended to sleep longer. And most importantly, this is the piece here again, is that they had more efficient sleep cycles.

And they found that when people exercised in the morning, they had an average of a 25% greater blood pressure drop at night than the other two groups.

So that speaks to an activation of what's called your parasympathetic nervous system, or your rest and digest system, and a deactivation of your sympathetic fight or flight system, which a la helps you sleep better.

Alright so what do we need to do here? For many people listening, like- and I did this. Before 'Sleep Smarter' came out, I had do this. I did it for an entire year, I did a test to see what happens.

Because I've been a morning exerciser for a long time, like as far as I can remember when I got my act together with taking care of my own health, I exercise in the morning most of the time.

And so I decided I'm going to exercise in the late afternoon / early evening for an entire year and see if I could still get the results. Because for guys in particular, for some ladies too, it's like all about our gains. Like I don't want to mess up my gains.

And so for me it was like I'm still going to do five minutes of exercise in the morning, but I don't want that to mess up my training later. Everything improved.

So my morning exercise- because this is the key. Even if you are exercising after work, get in five minutes in the morning so you can get some of these benefits.

Because what that is, is something we call a cortisol reset. So it helps to get your cortisol elevated normally, like it should be, and if we're looking at evolutionary biology, our cortisol should be peaked in the morning between 6:00 and 8:00 AM, and then it will gradually drop as the day goes on.

We can have some spikes here or there, but that's the track and this is why so many people are tired in the morning, because their cortisol- that coffee pot of cortisol is actually not filled. It's not ready to get poured out yet.

And to get exercise in, it gets that coffee pot filled up.

Jade Harrell: Gets it brewing. One thing that really inspires me then about how you share your previous morning routine, and how difficult it was to get going. It just really inspires hope in the idea that look at you now.

I mean it's even hard to believe that you ever were in that place, and it was a real place, it actually existed.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah.

Jade Harrell: And wherever we may be on the spectrum, that each new day can be that story in a day.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah. You know I asked my wife just yesterday, I was like, "Did I ever-" because you know she's been there at so many talks that I've done like literally all over the world, and she's been there.

And you know she was just like cracking up at this last talk that I did. And the guy who put the bit together, he was like, "She was really into this." He was like, "Do you not listen to him speak often?" She was like, "Yeah all the time." You know but it's these different elements, and of course just having a good time while still teaching.

But I asked her, I was like, "Have I ever- like when we got together, did I share my story with you?" And because I knew that I didn't, but I knew I shared pieces. And she was like, "No, not really. I mean you mentioned facets of like when you were dealing with this issue, like struggles with your school, and things like that."

Like I shared pieces because I was in the story.

Jade Harrell: Right.

Shawn Stevenson: The story was still getting written.

Jade Harrell: Right she was there as it was being written.

Shawn Stevenson: So the pieces were happening, and as I started to employ more and more of these pieces that I'm sharing with you guys, it led to where we are today, to where I have the story to share.

Jade Harrell: Exactly.

Shawn Stevenson: You know? And so it was just like, 'Wow.' Because I was in process. And we really are. It's all of this stuff is really a process of becoming. Right?

Jade Harrell: Right.

Shawn Stevenson: And it doesn't stop, and how can we continue to get better, even 1% each day is starting your day with a win by employing these things.

Jade Harrell: That's powerful.

So we're going to move onto number five here on our list of the Six F's to optimize and create your morning routine. And number five here is to fortify your health.

Shawn Stevenson: Now the first thing that you have when you start your day, this is you're breaking your fast. It's obviously going to impact your tissues a little bit stronger because your body doesn't really have anything directly like in your belly, right? 'In your belly.'

However of course there are still going to be some reserves scattered throughout your tissues, and there's going to be food in your intestine somewhere, but I'm talking about when you take that first thing in, it's going to hit your system without a lot of interference. So it matters, and I hope that makes sense.

Jade Harrell: Yeah it does.

So for me, what I've been doing every single morning, every
morning without fail for well over a year now is I'm employing my favorite mushroom elixirs.

And so when people hear that it's like, 'Is that like a button mushroom? Or is it shrooms?' No these are medicinal mushrooms with- I mean when you look at the research on this stuff, it is so mind-blowing, and people have no idea. Like this category of fungi, you know that about 44% of the medications that people are getting from their local pharmacy are based on these fungi.

It's crazy! It's crazy. There's literally so much long history of medicinal benefit, but you can't patent nature though. So these medicinal mushrooms are in a league of their own.

So for me today, especially if I'm doing some mental work, some mental labor, I love to have Lion's Mane which is looking at increasingly being studied for its neuroprotective effects.

University of Malaya confirmed the neuroregenerative potential of Lion's Mane mushroom. They actually looked at it and saw what happens with brain tissue.

Especially for accidents. Like people that need to grow tissue.

Jade Harrell: Yeah, repair it.

Shawn Stevenson: Amazing.

Jade Harrell: Wow.

Shawn Stevenson: How many things can you say have this capacity? Not enough people know about this yet, and that's why it's so important to talk about this.

Also featuring powerful classes of nerve growth factors. Alright nerve growth factors. And these are molecules that stimulate the differentiation and remyelination of your neurons.

Alright we've been talking about myelin. This medicinal mushroom helps to make that process work better. Powerful stuff.

And so I use the medicinal mushroom elixirs form Four Sigmatic, and I've been doing so for over a year. I love them because they do a dual extraction. So that means they're doing an extract- a hot water extract and an alcohol extract so that you're getting all of the stuff that they say is in the medicinal mushroom.

Because some of these different studies, if they're not doing the same extract method, you're not getting the beta glucan. So you're not getting the terpenes. You're not getting the different antioxidants, the superoxide dismutase, or whatever the case might be.

You can get access to all of these things when you do a dual extract. And when I say 'alcohol extract,' it does not mean there's alcohol in it. Alright so you're not going to be like, 'Oh I see why he likes his mushrooms!'

Jade Harrell: 'Good morning! I've got my mushrooms and my alcohol.'

Shawn Stevenson: 'Good morning!' So this is very intelligently done, and it's so super easy, quick to utilize as well. Like when I'm on the road I've got these little packets.

Jade Harrell: Oh yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: And I just brought you a little goody, a little box of them.

Jade Harrell: I know!

Shawn Stevenson: And so for people who love coffee, you've got to try the Four Sigmatic coffees.

Jade Harrell: It's so good.

Shawn Stevenson: Oh my goodness, it's absurd. It takes your whole experience to another level. Plus coffee, it teeters on the acidic side. Well it jumped all the way into the acidic pool, alright?

And so medicinal mushrooms that they combine it with, they're very alkaline. So it's much more neutral in how it hits your system, but also we are adding in the components.

Like you get that little bit of caffeine, which has these stimulating effects for your nervous system as well. Like it just hits on so many different levels.

So we've got the Lion's Mane combo in one of the coffees, they've got a Cordyceps coffee, which Cordyceps is clinically proven to improve insulin sensitivity, it's clinically proven to improve your endurance.

This isn't- again it's not like some supplement where it's saying, 'This is going to improve your endurance. Take this Company X supplement.'

This actually has clinical data to improve your endurance.

Jade Harrell: Right.

Improve your body's ability to utilize oxygen, let me put it like
that. So if you're not utilizing Four Sigmatic's amazing mushroom elixirs, head over there, check them out right now.

It's www.FourSigmatic.com/model. So that's www.FourSigmatic.com/model and you're going to get 15% off all of their incredible formulas. #yourewelcome. You've got to take advantage of this, I'm telling you.

And you go to my house, you open my cabinets, you just see Four Sigmatic boxes just like- I've got all of them.

Jade Harrell: I cleared a section.

Shawn Stevenson: And I change them up as well, because that's the great thing about it too, is like giving your body these different adaptogens. Giving your body these different notes so it doesn't get used to one thing, right?

Jade Harrell: Right.

Shawn Stevenson: And so I truly love those guys.

Jade Harrell: As a woman, and things change for us regularly, I like to rotate, and then especially look forward to rishi- the one with rishi for mood, having the best mood.

And I know that sometimes it's just not like that, might be mid-month, and so it works that way great.

Shawn Stevenson: Yes, yes. Rishi is- it's known as the queen in the mushroom kingdom.

Jade Harrell: Well, you know.

Shawn Stevenson: And which thousands of years of documented history of use, and it's also clinically proven to increase your NK cell activity over 300%. So these are your natural killer cells.

Your body literally- it's like training for your immune system. It's like a Ninjago camp. So your immune system becomes far more effective at detecting and eliminating pathogens that find their way into your system, alright? Spinjitzu like a mother.

Jade Harrell: I love that. That's why I love it, yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: So make sure to check them out,
www.FourSigmatic.com/model. Now let's move on to number six- and really quickly, one other note here.

Jade Harrell: Sure.

Shawn Stevenson: This is something I do- if you're doing your morning cup of coffee, make it this mushroom coffee. Or if somebody's doing the tea, if they're not into the coffee, they have the straight tea elixirs with the Chaga, Lion's Mane, Cordyceps, those kinds of things.

Or something else, like whatever it is for you. Give yourself like some medicinal bang for your buck. Like something to put that- get that momentum rolling with your nutrition to start your day. I highly recommend that.

Jade Harrell: Become a medicinal mushroom mixologist.

Shawn Stevenson: Well there you go. I'm going to snap again for you, okay.

Shawn Stevenson: So it starts with this very simple question. What is your mission for your day? What is your mission for the day?

Because the big mission has smaller components. What is the one thing that you want to execute on for this day to move you closer to your ultimate goal?

And if you don't get a clear view on what that is, how in the world are you going to get where you want to be? You have to get clear on what that is and answer the question.

What is your mission for the day? What is the one thing that's going to help knock over all the other dominos?

And so it's like with the map, right? Dora the Explorer, right? When they're trying to get somewhere, the map comes out.

Jade Harrell: 'I'm the map, I'm the map.' Yes.

Shawn Stevenson: 'I'm the map!'

Jade Harrell: Yes!

Right?

Jade Harrell: It's like, 'I'm the map!' Kind of got something.

Shawn Stevenson: I think he got a record deal so we haven't heard from him in awhile.

Jade Harrell: He had to have, he had to have.

Shawn Stevenson: It's called Trap Map.

Jade Harrell: That's perfect.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright so also without the map, if you don't know where you're going you become more susceptible to distraction, AKA Swiper. 'Swiper, no Swiping. Swiper, no swiping.'

Jade Harrell: How do you know this so well, I wonder.

Shawn Stevenson: So here's- these are the keys, these are the keys here. Having that map and asking the question, what is your mission for today? You don't have to conquer the world in one day, but just what is the number one thing?

What's the thing that's going to move you forward the most? And this goes back to the statement of 'eat the frog,' right? Like what is the big thing- get that big thing out of the way, and then the rest of the day is downhill from there.

Jade Harrell: That fits in with your task.

Shawn Stevenson: The biggest- this is like the domino effect that Jay Papasan talked about, author of 'The One Thing.' And what is the one thing that can knock over all the other dominoes? What's that big thing that moves everything else forward?

That's what you've got to do. And for me personally, I love creating a 'tomorrow list.'

Jade Harrell: Oh.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright so I do this the night before, where I know what I'm going to execute on, and it starts that subconscious patterning already, and then in the morning I can just recap. Like go and review what that's going to look like.

And there are great tools that help you to do that. Like the 'Freedom Journal,' you know with John Lee Dumas, and when he was on.

Jade Harrell: Yes.

Shawn Stevenson: So we've covered our Six F's, and the last one was to fulfill your mission. It's as simple as that. What direction are you going? What is the big thing? And I hope that you got some value out of that piece.

But I want to add in some other things that you might want to mix into your morning routine. I'm just going to bulletpoint these.

Another thing you could do is journaling, and we did an extensive like expressive writing episode, that was episode 172 with Katie Dalebout. And also of course with John Lee Dumas, who's just a mega star. He's a mega star. He's killing it! Killing it. And that's episode 138. Everything will be in the show notes at www.TheModelHealthShow.com of course guys.

Jade Harrell: Shout-out to Kate.

Shawn Stevenson: Hop over there. And also you could do it on iTunes as well. You like click on the little icon for this episode, and whatever. You know, you'll figure it out. It's very intuitive- they say Apple is intuitive.

Qigong, you can add in qigong. This adds in the movement piece, and the meditation piece at once with Tristan Truscott, one of my good friends, episode 154.

Focus work time. This might be a time for you in your morning routine where you get thirty minutes of power session in of writing or of research.

I love to have this as part of my day.

Breakfast. This can be something that's added into your morning routine, or if you're doing intermittent fasting, or if you're just doing the elixir like I'm doing for the first part of the day.

And so episode 124, 8 Incredible Health Benefits of Fasting, we did that as well.

Shower obviously.

Jade Harrell: Why not?

Shawn Stevenson: Another F here could be like 'fix yourself up.'

Jade Harrell: Freshen up.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright freshen up. Alright so shower, which for me today I ended my shower with the cold.

Jade Harrell: I know you did, oh my goodness.

Shawn Stevenson: We did an episode, cold thermogenesis, the benefits of cold thermogenesis, episode 127. A game changer, check that out.

Alright now lastly, I want to tie in some stars, like some other people's morning routines, and to see if you notice a pattern here.

We're going to go back in history first to start with, so we're going to look at Benjamin Franklin.

Jade Harrell: Okay.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright it's all about the Benjamins. It's literally- if you're all about the Benjamins, do what Ben did.

Jade Harrell: Do what Ben did. Follow Benjamin.

Shawn Stevenson: Follow Ben.

Jade Harrell: Follow Ben.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright so here's what he had to say. He said, "Wisdom is measured in routine." "Wisdom is measured in routine." And so he actually has- and this is out there on the Internet, I've seen this many years ago.

He's actually written up a morning schedule, and it starts with between the hours- and he has this structured off as morning from 5:00 to 7:00, and this is what he has here.

So he starts off with his morning the question, 'What good shall I do this day?' That's how it starts. The question, 'What good shall I do this day?'

And so for me- and before I even saw this was something that existed, every morning, which I did this morning, the first thing that I do when I become aware that I'm aware. I wake up, I ask, 'How can I serve today?'

That's the first thing that I do every single morning without fail, and it's not like I'm looking for an answer, I just let life hand that to me.

Jade Harrell: I was going to say, I can send you a few things.

Shawn Stevenson: Guaranteed throughout the day I'm going to find those places where I can be of service. And it starts the order of the day. 'How can I serve today?' And so then he shifts gears here, and so this is 5:00 to 7:00, his morning routine is rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness. He wants to address Powerful
Goodness. Contrive the day's business, so he's doing his planning for the day.

He's getting out his structure, his big goal. What is the goal for today? What is the big thing he wants to accomplish today?

And also it says he takes the resolution of the day, alright? Takes the resolution of the day. So it's kind of like if you're looking at affirmation, right? Take the resolution of the day.

Also he says within this timeframe of his morning routine, 'Prosecute the present study.' Alright so this is his time for feeding his mind, that's what he's doing, and breakfast. That's how Benjamin Franklin starts his day.

And notice if you see any consistencies here.

Jade Harrell: Oh yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: So we're going to start there, so next up I sent a message out to some of the most successful people that I know, some friends of mine, and had them to text me back like, 'What does your morning routine look like?'

And I might have heard pieces of it before, but for most of them I didn't know, but surprise surprise, they all do have this morning routine.

And so the first one is going to be- this is from Natalie Jill.

Jade Harrell: Oh yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright? Super star fitness, Natalie Jill Fit. Just like she's crushing it. Her social media influence, and she's just such a heartwarming good person. And she is somebody who- her story is she became a cover model like when she was almost forty was the first time that happened.

She made this decision after going through all of these problems with her health, but she felt so compelled like she has to share this, and she has to do this in a way that reaches a lot of people, especially women who are in that story, like it's not possible.

And she's a mom as well, like and again it's another thing we use as a story instead of a motivation. Instead of something that helps to spur on some greatness. It's like, 'I can't because.'

And so Natalie Jill, this is how she starts her day. She says she's up at 6:00 AM, snuggle with husband, she listens to a podcast while getting dressed, and then she takes her time making and eating breakfast and having tea while writing in her gratitude journal.

And then she's going over and choosing her three main goals for the day. And after that she just kind of writes that stuff down, wraps up her morning routine, and she just goes and executes. So that's how she starts her day. It's pretty simple.

So now, how about my guy Pat Flynn?

Jade Harrell: Hey.

Shawn Stevenson: He is the creator of Smart Passive Income, he's helped I mean easily a couple hundred thousand people to transform their lives and to really start to make a living doing more work that they love, and also just making a living period. Because the game has changed, alright? The game has changed and people are finding a way.

Because as we've talked about with Dr. Roizen, financial stress, that's one of the top three biggest stressors for people that are causing problems with our health.

And so I love Pat Flynn, and here's his morning routine. And it's changed over the years as his kids have gotten older. He has two kids as well.

So he gets up at 4:00. 4:00 AM. He splashes water on his face three times. It's a pattern, he's that specific. Then he brushes his teeth, he has some food and coffee, and he journals while he's eating.

And after that he does some meditation, and Wednesday and Friday he's playing five-on-five basketball. And this is early, I think he goes like at 5:00 or something.

And other days he's reading for twenty to thirty minutes before he starts his day. And the kids get up, he cooks and eats with them if that's how the schedule is going. And he said obviously shower after playing basketball.

Jade Harrell: I bet.

Shawn Stevenson: So this is Pat's morning routine. Did you notice any consistencies? Have you heard this multiple times yet?

Jade Harrell: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright so now let's look at Drew Manning.

Jade Harrell: Hey.

Shawn Stevenson: Drew is one of my friends, really close friends, love this guy and of course he was on the show as well. Fit2Fat2Fit. So he's the trainer- changed the game, it's become a TV show on A&E, very successful show.

I think it's the second season is about to come out if it isn't already. But he purposely gained seventy pounds to experience what it was like, because he felt like he just didn't understand.

Like when he was working with his clients, like why don't you just- it's not that hard. And it totally changed his whole perspective. And there's a lot to glean from his example, but he really understood about emotional eating.

He really understood about this emotional attachment to food. He really understood how embarrassing he felt when he would go to the gym and he just couldn't do the things that everyone else was doing. And it made him feel like he didn't want to go.

Like all these different small things that somebody might experience that we can bring more love and compassion and support to, and he did this.

And so let's see, his thing is 6:00 AM wake up, 6:01 pee.

Jade Harrell: He's so funny.

Shawn Stevenson: 6:02 drink some water with a little sea salt. Then he meditates after that at 6:05. Ten minutes for that and then he does some affirmations after meditation.

Around 6:20 he's having his coffee, he's doing a gratitude journal, and then he jumps on email. This is about thirty plus minutes after he gets up, but he gets his morning routine in. Even if it's just this thirty minutes, he got all of these things- guess what? He started the day winning.

So that's Drew Manning.

Danielle Natoni, Fit and Funky on everything. Especially got to check her out on Instagram, @FitAndFunky. And I love her, and her husband Darren, two of my favorite people as well.

Jade Harrell: Tell them I say hi.

Shawn Stevenson: And so this is what she sent over. And by the way, I mean my goodness she is just killing it. She's killing it on every level, it's just amazing to see her and what she's accomplishing.

So she says up at 6:00 AM, pee. There's another pee again. Drink water, pee again. She has pre-workout, and let's see, she takes a pre-workout post for social media.

If you want to build your social media, you need to check out what she's doing because it's amazing.

Jade Harrell: Oh man, if you want to dream big, watch her work out.

Shawn Stevenson: So pre-workout picture, then the workout-

Jade Harrell: Exactly.

Shawn Stevenson: Where she posts a lot of clips from her workouts as well.

Jade Harrell: Which are no joke.

Shawn Stevenson: Then she takes a post-workout video, then she grabs her computer, coffee, and she gets to work. That's how she starts her day.

See another- drinks water. Powerful. Powerful. It just got me thinking too, because people are like, 'I don't want to drink that much water because then I'm going to have to pee.'

That's a problem?! It's a problem to pee? And of course there's extenuating- like I've worked with many teachers over the years.

I've worked with people in so many different fields, but it's like, 'I can't leave the classroom' or whatever. Get this morning piece in, right? You can drink a little bit more-

Jade Harrell: Morning pee.

Shawn Stevenson: Right. Get this in, and then you'll be able to modulate throughout the day a little bit more strategy. But the bottom line is you need to be peeing. This is like your filter for all of this like getting rid of metabolic waste. It's not a problem when peeing.

One of the things- wouldn't it be cool if like somebody could go pee for you? Right it's like tell your kid, "Go grab the remote."

Jade Harrell: Right, right.

Shawn Stevenson: "Can you go pee for me while you're up?" Unfortunately it's one of the things that you have to do yourself. Like Jim Rohn says, no one can do your pushups for you. No one can go pee for you. Alright but you need to get hydrated, alright? It's a good thing.

Alright lastly, I've got one more here, and again this is another really good friend,
Michael Morelli. 'The Sweet Potato Diet.'

Baby oh my- the recipes in that book, I'm telling you. So, so good. And so Michael has just been- he's a beast. Like he's just been killing the game, alright?

And so he's the fitness guy. He says that what he does is he essentially goes to sleep around the time the sun goes down, and wakes up around the time the sun comes up, which is somewhere around 4:00 for him.

And he has coffee, it's the first thing he does, high quality organic- he has the good stuff. Then I guess he jumps in the pool, he does a little pool work. He does some reading, and so he likes more of a spiritual text to start the day.

Something that's self-development, spiritual, kind of getting that part of the heart and the mind combination going.

And then he does his training after that, and so that's how he starts his day, and then he says he crushes it the rest of the day.

Jade Harrell: Of course.

Shawn Stevenson: But he actually put some expletives in here. And then he just gets on it, right? He crushes it.

Jade Harrell: Right, I bet there are some F's in that.

Shawn Stevenson: And so every day, the Six F's. I love that, I love that. So every day- that's what you're talking about, right? The Six F's?

Jade Harrell: Yes, of course.

Shawn Stevenson: Every day he says that it just depends on the day, whether or not he's eating before he trains, it just kind of depends on the day.

Jade Harrell: Right, right.

Shawn Stevenson: But there's a consistency. Did you see again, these consistent pieces from each of these people in their respective fields, their respective life experiences as well?

We always have a way, and we can take from these incredible individuals, and add these pieces to our overall strategy.

And so in closing I really want to just wrap this piece up, and to deliver a few extra additional tips to help you to crush your day as well by creating your own powerful morning routine.

So number one, and keep in mind this critical fact. A great morning starts the night before. Alright, a great morning starts the night before. If you haven't done so already, make sure to listen to episode 216.

I think that's the one to go to after this episode, and that's the one where we did evening routines that enhance sleep, accelerate fat loss, and supercharge your brain.

You're going to make your morning routine all that much sweeter by actually feeling good when you wake up in the morning.

So that's number one, is a great morning starts the night before, and to use that to your advantage.

Number two is to customize it. This isn't a cookie cutter thing. You can take and add pieces that feel good for you, because each of these people have experimented with a lot of things as well, and they find the thing that works for them, and you just keep doing it because the benefits just keep adding up, and adding up. So customize it.

Number three is to adjust for extenuating circumstances. So my morning routine might typically be an hour, but I'm travelling, I've got a talk early in the morning and sleep is important, so I condense it down to a twenty minute process.

Instead of doing ten minutes for each thing, now maybe it's three minutes for each thing. Or whatever the case might be.

For extenuating circumstances, have some flexibility, but don't forfeit your morning routine. Your brain and your body are expecting those things. Find a way to add those pieces in.

And some of those things is like when you're travelling for example, or you've got family and kids. Maybe it's parents are staying over, it's some random thing, or of course if you've got kids, they've got curveballs. They've got the split finger curve coming at you.

Jade Harrell: Because it's fast, yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: Alright and I'm thinking about the movie, which I never saw it, Trouble with the Curve, is that what it's called?

Jade Harrell: I don't know that one.

Shawn Stevenson: With Clint Eastwood?

Jade Harrell: Oh, okay.

Shawn Stevenson: It's probably good, but if you haven't seen the movie, I guess don't see it.

Jade Harrell: If it's Clint Eastwood, I would believe it would be.

Shawn Stevenson: So travel, family, kids, and another one is abnormal time restriction. You know so this is when something is on your calendar at a random time, and you've got to adjust for that. So adjust for extenuating circumstances.

Number four is to schedule it. Actually schedule your morning routine. Put it on your calendar. You can actually allot it for a block of time. So may it's a thirty minute thing you just block off on your calendar, so that alert comes up.

But for me- it shouldn't be you're going to your phone though. For me, I don't even see my phone first thing in the morning, which I'm going to address in just a second, to start the day most of the time.

Nobody's perfect, alright? But for me it's like morning routine, it shows up right there on my phone.

And- or you can break it into the components. Like Drew did by the minute for him. It was just like 6:00 this. 6:01 that. So you can break it down, but bottom line is schedule it. Actually put it on a schedule so it creates another layer of accountability for yourself.

Jade Harrell: Puts it into existence.

Shawn Stevenson: I do the same thing for my- when I expect to be in the bed, like that's on my calendar. Like nighty night. Right?

Alright so number five here, and this tip is super valuable, is to combine morning rituals that fit well together if you want to. You don't have to do this, but it just makes it all work especially with time constraints or it just might feel good to you.

For example, exercise while listening to a podcast.

Jade Harrell: Or doing laundry.

Shawn Stevenson: Which somebody is doing right now. Shout-out to you. I see you, I'm with you. Let's go!

Jade Harrell: Fabric softener, baby.

Shawn Stevenson: What?!

Jade Harrell: If you're doing laundry. I mean you were talking about the exercise. For me, that's how I combine.

Shawn Stevenson: I thought we were here.

Jade Harrell: We are.

Shawn Stevenson: And you were in the laundry.

Jade Harrell: Somebody's got to keep the shirts fresh. You know?

Shawn Stevenson: There you go. I like that. Also of course you can sip on your morning elixir while reading, or having your breakfast while reading or journaling like Natalie Jill mentioned.

So there's these wonderful options and ways to combine things, but the bottom line is you can combine these rituals if you like to put it all together in a cohesive fashion for you, because that's what it's all about.

So last quick point, just a reminder or a morning ritual, we want to start by executing on our number one goal for the day. And so going over to your phone, and hopping on social media, answering questions, that kind of thing, it distracts you.

So get your morning routine in, and then you've got time, and you've already got your wins so that you can do whatever it is that you were going to do on your phone, or check an email, or whatever the case might be.

But take care of you first. Employ these strategies that you've learned today, create a consistent powerful morning routine so that you can live the life that you truly want.

And so thank you so much for tuning into the show today. I truly, truly appreciate you, and if you feel that this was valuable or something that could be helpful for your friends and family, make sure to share this out on social media, on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all that good stuff.

LinkedIn, you can share it up there, send it to them in an email, but just help other people to start crushing life by employing their own morning ritual, and how powerful that can be, and adding some of the science behind it, and some of the strategies.

Just giving people options because in today's time, we're living in the time with the greatest distraction, there's so much coming at us, and if we can start our day with some normalcy, if we can start our day by getting in some early wins, it can really set the tone for building some powerful momentum to truly becoming the best version of ourselves.

So I appreciate you so much. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon.

And make sure for more after the show, you head over to
www.TheModelHealthShow.com, that's where you can find the show notes, and if you've got any questions or comments, make sure to let me know. And please head over to iTunes and give us a five star rating, and let everybody know that our show is awesome.

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: And you're loving it.

Jade Harrell: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: And I read all the comments, so please leave me a comment there, and take care everybody. I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.

Hey Shawn, I’m really loving your show. I have a question about this episode (231). When you said you switched from exercising in the morning to exercising later in the day for a year, you said everything went up : gains testosterone etc. I’m a little confused because I thought you were saying it’s better to exercise in the morning. Or did you mean when you added 5 minutes in the morning?
Thanks again for the wonderful podcast! Matt

Shawn,
I heard you talk about the unique workout equipment from Onnit. I agree you need to change things up once in awhile but how do we learn how to use this equipment? Any suggestions or direction would be appreciated!

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